


Ice Cold?

by AClusterOfFandoms



Series: Uncle Cecil! [2]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Babysitting, Carlos explains science, Family, Gen, Happy, Janice is super clever, M/M, SCIENCE!, This honestly gets a bit complicated oops, Uncle Carlos, Uncle Cecil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-21 03:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2453750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AClusterOfFandoms/pseuds/AClusterOfFandoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cecil and Carlos babysit Janice and she asks a very clever question. Carlos the Scientist to the rescue…?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice Cold?

It was an overly warm day in Night Vale, and the heat wasn't dissipating as the light faded. Cecil pulled up at Steve's house and the couple got out of the car.   
"Are you sure you don't mind this? I know it's our night and I could totally cancel if you weren't okay with this." Cecil asked for the fourth time that day.   
"Yes, Cecil, this is fine. I love Janice. Besides, Steve and Monica deserve a little time every now and then." His boyfriend made and small noise of disagreement but didn't argue his point. He knocked on the door and Steve answered.  
"Hey Cecil, Carlos. Come on in, perfect timing. Janice has just finished making smoothies." Steve smiled and greeted them in, and Carlos grinned at Janice down the hall way.  
"They look great Janice, hope there's enough for me and Carlos," Cecil said, and Monica appeared in the kitchen beside her daughter.  
"There is, uncle Cecil, I made them especially for Carlos because I know he likes mango!" Carlos gasped theatrically and acted abashed, heading over to her.

"Are you sure you're okay with this, Cecil? I feel bad asking on such short notice but Janice was supposed to be going to a sleep over and her friend cancelled last minute." Monica sounded genuinely sorry, but Cecil made sure they were 100% happy that he was happy to be there.   
"Go out, have fun, Janice and Carlos get on so well anyway." He hugged his sister and then she and Steve left.   
"Bye Janice, be good!"  
"Bye mom, bye dad!" She called and waved goodbye.

"So Janice, how about we try some of this smoothie?" Cecil asked, joining his family in the kitchen.   
"Should I put ice in? It's pretty warm today." They both nodded.  
"It is warm, even by desert standards." Carlos commented.  
Just then Janice dropped an ice cube and it slid across the floor.   
"Oops," she said giggling, as Cecil picked it up and held it in his hand threateningly above Carlos' neck. The cold water dripped and dribbled down his scientist's back, causing him to shiver involuntarily.   
"Hey, uncle Carlos, how come it has to be cold for water to freeze?" Janice asked, putting the ice cubes back in the freezer and handing out drinks.  
"Now that is a complicated question." He replied, sipping the smoothie and humming in enjoyment. "This is delicious, thank you Janice."  
"Why /does/ it have to be cold?" Cecil asked, tilting his head. Carlos smiled as he thought. He was stuck between saying something so overly-simplified it was wrong or explaining the majority of thermodynamics and chemical bonding to an eleven-year-old and Cecil. Well, they had all night.  
"Okay, we'd better go into the living room. This might take a while."

Cecil and Carlos sat on the sofa and Janice put her chair facing them. Carlos thought for a moment.  
"Carlos?" Cecil waved his hand in front of his boyfriend's face. "Are you still there?" He laughed and shrugged.  
"It's just difficult to know where to start. Is there any paper I can use to draw diagrams?" Janice nodded and went to her room, returning with an easel and an A3 pad of paper.  
"Excellent. Good. So, I'm going to start by explaining how water is different from Ice. Do you know the molecular formula for water, Janice?"  
"H2O?"   
"Exactly, so that means there is two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen in each molecule. Are you familar with atoms?" He asked, having drawn circles as representations. Thankfully, they both nodded.  
"Okay, so the hydrogen and oxygen are connected by bonds at this angle, so it looks like you've bent a straight line. The hydrogens are 104.5° apart, and these bonds are a type found in lots of things like wood and plastic, called covalent bonds, and they're always there in the water whether is solid, liquid or gas. Are you following?" Janice nodded enthusiastically, and Cecil looked less convincing, but he carried on nevertheless.  
"Right, well this is the fairly important part of how water is bonded. For reasons which I won't explain right now, the Hydrogens of one molecule are attracted to the oxygen of another, and this is called Hydrogen Bonding. This is what determines whether it's ice, water or steam. In water there are only a few hydrogen bonds, but in ice there are lots and lots and so the molecules move around less and it's solid. I don't know if that makes sense." He paused and looked at- he guessed it would be okay to call her his niece. After all, he was uncle Carlos. She looked at what he'd drawn.  
"Can I try and draw that?" She asked, sounding determined to get this. He handed her the paper and a pen. She drew out the structure just like Carlos had done, only adding a few more molecules to really get the picture.  
"Incidentally, this is also why ice floats on liquid water. The gaps created by the hydrogen bonding make it less dense, so it's lighter than water." Cecil was leant over the paper with them.  
"Neat!" He said, before blushing.  
"Okay, so that's water. Now the really complex bit- entropy. So everything in the universe complies with certain laws," he made a mental note to checked that Night Vale did too, "and the one we need to look at is the second law of thermodynamics. This states that any spontaneous action will lead to an increase in entropy of the universe. That basically means that everything that happens makes the universe less ordered, or more disordered. Do we understand entropy?" Carlos' audience looked blank, and Janice bit her lower lip.  
"The universe is messy and it never tidies up, just makes more mess." He tried, hoping his analogy worked.   
"Just like you, Carlos!" Cecil joked, and the scientist tossed a cushion at him.  
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. So what's that got to do with it being cold?" Janice asked.  
"Well, when water freezes the molecules become more ordered, so entropy decreases, but the second law of thermodynamics forbids that, so water freezing shouldn't happen. However, when it freezes hydrogen bonds like we looked at earlier form. This is exothermic- it gives out heat energy. This energy excites the surroundings and so the entropy increases. However, entropy is dependent on temperature. The same amount of energy can be supplied to a hot substance and a cold substance, but because the hot substance already has very active molecules the entropy change isn't as big as it is in the cold substance. So basically the surroundings have to be cold enough for the entropy increase from the heat released is bigger than the entropy decrease of the change from liquid to solid." There was a long silence. 

He realised about 2/3 into his speech that he'd started rambling a little, switching to professor mode. His audience were blank.  
"I don't think I get it, Uncle Carlos." Janice said, frowning profusely. Carlos sighed.  
"It's okay, I didn't learn about hydrogen bonding until I was 16, and I was in college before we covered entropy. It's a difficult concept, but with a little more explanation at school you'll get it. It'll be great when you do, too. Like the whole universe just makes a little more sense."  
"But you said that's impossible!" Cecil retaliated.   
"It is, but it doesn't mean it can't feel great, knowing something new and clicking ideas together. It's why I'm a scientist."  
"You're a very good one, at that."

They cuddled up on the couch and watched Frozen, Carlos laughing as Janice yelled 'Hydrogen Bonds!' whenever Elsa froze anything and having numerous group sing-a-longs, included and duet of Love Is An Open Door by Cecil and Carlos. Janice had fallen asleep by the time Steve and Monica got home around midnight. They were thanked and exchanged hugs before Cecil and Carlos returned, together, to their home.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is actually just complicated science that I learnt yesterday and it blew my mind- there's hardly a fic here. Sorry. But hey, you might've learnt something! Thanks for reading.


End file.
